Wednesday, 19 December 2012

A black dog story

Many years ago a long-term relationship I was
in at the time broke down. The house we had been buying together was sold, and
we went our separate ways. About a year later, perhaps rather foolishly, I went
back to look at the house, and it was in the process of being demolished. The
site was due to be cleared, along with others in the street, for the building
of flats. The roof was gone and internally the house had been gutted. All that
remained was an empty shell. It looked just as if a bomb had hit it.

Suddenly, out of a gaping hole that had
previously been our front door, an immaculate white cat emerged. It was like
the ghost of all the much-loved cats (four) which had previously shared the
house with us. For a while that cat came to symbolise for me a period of mental
distress that I had gone through at the time.

But for many, it is the black dog of
depression which follows them through periods of their lives. At the end of the
Mental Health First Aid course which I attended in 2009, I was given a short book
called “I had a black dog” by Matthew Johnstone. It is a beautifully
illustrated picture book, which, as Stephen Fry comments: “… says with wit,
insight, economy and complete understanding what other books take 300 pages to
say. Brilliant and indispensable.” There is a link to it here.

But also, I find (thanks to my colleague
Glynis), there is a short video, uploaded recently, about
this black dog. We decided to share it here: